We often get asked by clients about different ideas they heard from a friend, a new exclusive deal they got invited into, or, most frequently, a specific company or stock that a friend gave them the scoop on. The reality is that a lot of the “great ideas and deals” never amount to any real return, and many end up going to zero.
Are you feeling the pain at the pump? What is driving oil prices higher?
You can’t have spring without spring cleaning. As you tackle your home, yard, and other spaces this year, your financial plan might also need to be spruced up. Here are a few tips to clean up your financial plan this spring.
Index funds are popular investment tools for good reason. They are low cost, effective ways to capture market return. Choosing to use index funds is only half the battle though; you must use them correctly to truly benefit.
There is just something about the NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Tournament. There is tremendous excitement in many families and workplaces as tournament brackets are filled in with predictions about the outcomes of 67 games over a three-week period.
A common question among nonprofit associations is how much they should hold in reserve assets. There is a “rule of thumb” that associations should hold six months of operating expenses in reserve. Is this common rule of thumb common practice?
Housing affordability is trending in the wrong direction. Take a look at our chart of the month showing housing affordability over the last 50 years.
Investors are always on the lookout, it seems, for new and profitable ways to help make their dollars work for them. One that has come up quite often on our clients’ radars recently is Series I Bonds (or just I Bonds).
Pictures and video coming from Ukraine are difficult to watch. As humans, we may be angered and ask, “How can I help?” In investing, typically the best thing to do in the moments when we are most tempted to do “something,” is simply to sit still.
Stock market risk is the primary focus of the financial news. The reason is simple. The scarier the headline, the more eyes are attracted to it.
The past fifteen years have been phenomenal for U.S. stocks. They've outperformed international stocks by close to 200%. Unfortunately, no one can predict when international stocks will outperform U.S. stocks, or vice-versa.
At Foster Group, the most important thing we do is help our clients have peace of mind. The planning, investing and conversations that lead to peace of mind vary from client to client. The benefits, however, are similar.
Stay diversified, and stay the course. That’s good advice for both runners and investors.
I wrote in a previous blog about the importance of having a well-written Investment Policy Statement (IPS). What should be in a well-written document?
Those of you who keep up with the financial news are likely familiar with the three most quoted indices, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the NASDAQ. Sometimes, the returns for all of them are similar, but sometimes they are not.
It's natural to sit down at the end of the year and reflect on what happened. Here is a short recap of what happened in the markets and the world in 2022.
2022 was a historically painful year as an investor with stock markets experiencing a bear market, and bond markets having one of their worst years ever. However, as we enter 2023, I’d like to consider the positives.
Recently, a client asked me about sectors. What are they? And how do they fit into a portfolio?
If you’re a young professional, negative market returns can carry less weight than you might think. Let’s use 2022 as an example.
Is there conclusive evidence that one sector is better than another when it comes to returns?
